JAYME

Marie Jayme English 103- Carleton December 5, 2010 Final Draft (2,100 Word Count)

Beautiful Until Death

In our society today, the media constantly bombards us with images of the perfect and most attractive people. These images create the desire to look just as beautiful as Angelina Jolie or as handsome as Brad Pitt. We know that these people go through hours of primping, however, we still try to follow what the media claims to be a beautiful person; a beautiful person who will be //forever young//. Older people are never featured in commercials or movies because society finds aging unattractive. Moreover, we tend to fear aging, because of consequences that go along with it such as ugliness, health problems, lack of love, and finally, death. In both today’s world and in Aldous Huxley’s //Brave New World//, aging has become an emotional and physical struggle between the old and the contemporary. (do you mean between the old and the young? but is it intergenerational or personal? isn't the struggle to achieve 'perfection' one that occurs within the individual?)

The elderly are often referred to as “old” with a negative connotation. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the definition of “old” is (of a human) having lived a long time, having the characteristics of //maturity//, not young, and at an //advanced// stage of life. In a broad sense, the word old seems to mean “wise and mature”, not ancient and outdated. Why, then, do we still give the elderly the stereotype as incapable of performing modernized tasks? As a society, we tend to focus on the end of old age instead of their enlightening past, knowledge, and skills. Some characteristics of “oldness” are that work is over (retirement, pension), planning for the future is over, sex is over, shopping habits are set in stone, and that the there is no real communication with the modern world (Cravit, 17). Other stereotypes that we give to the elderly include that they cannot drive, they are slow, incompetent, nostalgic, forgetful, lonely, ill, stay at nursing homes, conservative, passive, and will die soon. These stereotypes are a stark contrast to our progressive, busy, and active lifestyle that we, as younger people, live in today. In //Brave New World//, Mustafa Mond stereotypes aging in their society as a “sense of weakness, of listlessness, of discomfort, which accompanies the advance of age; and, feeling thus, imagines himself merely sick, lulling his fears with the notion that this distressing condition is due to some particular cause, from which, as from an illness, he hopes to recover. Vain imaginings! That sickness is old age; and a horrible disease it is” (Huxley, 232). The people of the New World see old age as //pain//. Mond describes it as weak because once someone is “sick” they are incapable of performing their assigned tasks in the world. Serving the community and adding onto its stability is the goal of all the members of the society. All the castes are born and bred to do something specific in life and if it is not accomplished because of a “road block” such as a disease from aging, they will stress about their life’s goal not being fulfilled.

What startles people the most about aging is how drastically ones appearance changes as they get older. When we are in middle school, we cannot wait to see what we will look like in ten or fifteen years because we want to look older; we are tired of the “baby-face” and we want to look more mature and more attractive. However, there comes a time as we grow where we want to stop our appearance right where it is, and never change. **We tend to reminisce** (yes, but why? is it instinct or conditioning?) of the times when we were skinnier, had that glisten in our eyes, and were younger looking. We consider this time to be the dreaded “mid-life crises”, when our lives are half over and the fear of aging really starts to hit us. Media and society portrays older people as wrinkly, frail, gray, pale, hunch-backed, and slow and appearance of the elderly scares us to think that we ourselves will end up in the same feeble way. In [|Wise Words on Fear of Aging], the author remembers a time when she was watching a TV show in which a famous woman (most likely a model) was complaining about how she looked “tired” and how plastic surgery was in her near future so that she could look young again. Marian McCain sees plastic surgery as the gluing on of the faded petals onto the rose again. The author recognizes that //looking// young again does not make anyone necessarily //feel// young again. The “tired” face can be embraced if it became saggy and wrinkled for the right reasons; doing real work, not just simply modeling gigs. A life fulfilled is always going to be a tired life because so much work was done such as community service, learning, adventures, love, and loss. She also says, “ Only by living the whole cycle, from birth, through childhood, maturity and old age, can we experience the full range of what it is to be human”. This goes along with Zoomer theory.  (clarify: is this a philosophy, a medical condition, an identity?) The Zoomer is the sum of all the ages played out all at the same time in old age. It includes the body of a 65-year-old, the mind of a 45-year-old, libido of a 25-year-old, and the heart of a teenager (Cravit, 27-28). Living in the later years and eventually dying is actually something that can be seen as the “New Old” because it combines all of the stages of life into one great age.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">In //Brave New World//, most of the comments made about Linda are about her appearance because from birth the members of the New World are taught to always stay sanitary, stay fit, and stay beautiful. “There was a gasp, a murmur of astonishment and horror; a young girl screamed; standing on a chair to get a better view someone upset two test-tubes full of spermatozoa. Bloated, sagging, and among those firm youthful bodies, those undistorted faces, a strange and terrifying monster of middle agedness, Linda advanced into the room…” (Huxley, 150). The people of the new world are instantly shocked at Linda’s appearance because it is out of the ordinary, different, therefore, ugly. The fact that Huxley describes her as a “terrifying monster” indicates that her appearance is ghastly and destructive. Linda is a 44 year old woman. We still consider 44 to be extremely young; however, this is completely different from the ideals of the new society. In order to keep their youthful appearance, <span style="color: #ff0000; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">Bernard <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">says, “We preserve them from diseases. We keep their internal secretions artificially balanced at a youthful equilibrium. We don’t permit their magnesium-calcium ration to fall below what it was at thirty. We give them transfusion of young blood. We keep their metabolism permanently stimulated” (Huxley, 111). The technology of the New World is so advanced that they are able to keep everyone fit and skinny, control wrinkles from appearing, and stop diseases from forming. It is crucial <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">(why?) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">for the society to permanently look attractive as well as stay physically healthy. The goals of the New World are dreams that we hope (as a media bombarded society) to someday reach.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">Not only does our appearance matter in our lives, but health does too. When we think of the elderly we think of cancer, broken hips, wheel chairs, and Alzheimer’s disease. We do not want to forget our families, our past, or even our own names. The thought of suffering because of a lethal disease scares us away from thinking about our lives after age 50. In //Brave New World// happiness equals stability which encompasses control of //everything//. John Savage says that he would rather choose freedom and the “right to be unhappy”. Mustapha Mond responds by saying that unhappiness is, “the right to grow old and ugly and impotent; the right to have syphilis and cancer; the right to have too little to eat; they right to be lousy; the right to live in constant apprehension of what may happen tomorrow; the right to catch typhoid; the right to be tortured by unspeakable pains of every kid” (Huxley, 240). Health, however, cannot be measured by the amount of diseases or the number of broken bones a person has. It also includes the emotional, spiritual, and social well-being of the individual (Morgan, 343). Pogrebin says in //Getting Over Getting Older// that “…we often confuse the worth of the self with the failures of the flesh” (177). The spirit or soul of a person is always more important than the appearance or frailty of it. How we live gives our life quality, not the breakdown of body parts.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">The thought of our bodies changing for the worse is scary and we would like the reverse the process if we were given the opportunity to. In __Brave New World__, there is no such thing as an old person or the characteristics that old people possess because of new developments in science and technology. In the real world, we are not quite as lucky to be born without disease or get older without inconveniences, but in a matter of time, we will reach that point. In the article [|Aging Partially Reversed in Mice. Are Humans Next?] a recent study was made at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, they have found a way to manipulate the DNA in mice to prevent the bad effects of aging. Through many tests they have been able to reverse brain disease, bring back the sense of smell, and restore fertility. Although this breakthrough is far from ever happening to humans, it is a step closer to reversing the aging process, therefore implying that reversing age is a good thing.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">Some of us fear aging more than death but some of us fear aging because of death. In today’s world which, for the most part, has a belief in some higher deity and an afterlife, we take how we live our lives seriously. Living life to the fullest is what we strive to do because we never know when our lives can be taken away into an unknown afterlife. The mystery of what happens after death is what makes death scary. Do our souls just disappear into thin air or do we actually have everlasting happiness? We also do not know how we will die, and simply thinking about it is morbid. Will it be painful or peaceful? Will I even know that my life on Earth is nonexistent? Pogrebin at 56 year old woman says in her book, “I imagine dying as my final fainting spell, the one I don’t come back from, the big blackout that solves all my time problems by putting an end to real time, thereby giving me nothing left to lose” (302). Older people know that death can be around the corner, and they can choose to accept it or fear it. There is no such thing as fear of death in the New World. Everyone is death-conditioned from when they were toddlers. This means that death is not seen as such a horrible event because they are given chocolate cream and toys and taught “to take dying as a matter of course” (Huxley, 164). Mond says, “…that it is the fear of death and of what comes after death that makes men turn to religion as they advance in years.” Taking away death from the thoughts of the young children takes away the need for religion or a God. “You can only be independent of God while you’ve got youth…religious sentiment is superfluous” (Huxley, 233). What is this hostility towards God? God and the Bible, in Mond’s eyes, are old. The Brave //New// World, does not accept the old.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">Aging has the same effect on people in //Brave New World// and in today’s society; however, the Community takes aging to a whole new level to where it no longer exists. They have no use for old things and would rather introduce people to the “new” (Huxley, 219). As we fear aging because of how it will make us appear, we need to stop and realize that how we live our lives is how we will be known when we do die, not by how we look. The quality of life is not up to par in the New World because they are essentially robots without self-goals. <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">(yes, you might reflect further on World Staters and how their lack of aging also implies a lack of experience, depth, wisdom) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">The presence of religion does help us get through each day and live it to our very last, which the New World exists without. The fear of aging <span style="color: #ff0000; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">can <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> has the ability to be suppressed; it is our job to not view it as a deterioration of life, but as an accumulation of the best memories that we have lived. We carry our beauty to the grave.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">WORKS CITED **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Cann, Paul, and Malcolm Dean, eds. Unequal Ageing: The Untold Story of Exclusion in Old Age. Portland: Policy, 2009. Print.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Cohen, Elizabeth. “Aging partially reversed in mice. Are humans next?” CNN Health. N.p.,29 Nov. 2010. Web. 30 Nov. 2010. <http://pagingdrgupta.blogs.cnn.com/2010/11/29/aging-partially-reversed-in-mice-are-humans-next/?hpt=C2>.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Cravit, David. The New Old: How the Boomers Are Changing Everything-- Again. Toronto: ECW, 2008. Print.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. New York: Perennial Classics, 1932. Print.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Morgan, Leslie A., and Suzanne Kunkel. Aging: the Social Context. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge, 1998. Print.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Pogrebin, Letty Cottin. Getting over Getting Older: an Intimate Journey. Boston: Little, Brown, 1996. Print.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Van Eyk McCain, Marian. "Wise Words on Fear of Aging." Editorial. Time Goes By. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Nov. 2010. [].


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">WORKS CONSULTED **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Cavanaugh, John C. Aging in America. Vol. 3. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger/ABC-CLIO, 2010. Print.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Chawla, Mukesh, Gordon Betcherman, and Arup Banerji. From Red to Gray: the "third Transition" of Aging Populations in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union. Washington D.C.: World Bank, 2007. Print.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Davis, Richard H. Television and the Aging Audience. Los Angeles, CA: Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center, University of Southern California, 1980. Print.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Decker, David L. Social Gerontology: an Introduction to the Dynamics of Aging. Boston: Little, Brown, 1980. Print.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">[|Graceful Aging by LeNoir]

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">[|Failure to Launch: When Beauty Fades] Elle Magazine

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">The Ugliness Problem by Dan Seligman


 * ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY﻿**
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Morgan, Leslie A., and Suzanne Kunkel. Aging: the Social Context. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge, 1998. Print. **

//<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Excellent Source with knowledgable and well researched perspectives and facts on aging. This source also has a glossary, index, and table of contents. 488 pages. // <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Aging: The Social Context is a great source edited by Leslie Morgan and Suzanne Kunkel, because it is just an informational source about the elderly. It includes how the society views aging, descriptions about physical aging in the body (105-130), psychological differences from the younger years, healthcare statistics (340-352), graphs about the number of people in the population who are older, health and illness concerns, mental health problems to be aware of, and how the role of families affects the elderly. There is also a section that describes the hardships that the elderly go through especially concerning politics and the government. This source includes made tables and graphs to explain pension and the labor force for the elderly. I will focus on the psychological and sociological perspectives on aging (145-193). There are even pictures that show the aging of an organism and the many theories of aging such as the Hormonal Theory or the Wear-and Tear Theory (111-116). This book is also helpful because it has a large index and a glossary that defines many key terms.


 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Cann, Paul, and Malcolm Dean, eds. Unequal Ageing: The Untold Story of Exclusion in Old Age. Portland: Policy, 2009. Print. **

//<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Very Good source with a great index, table of contents, graphs and tables, and different perspectives. 179 pages // <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">This text, edited by Cann and Dean describes the common misconceptions of old age and how society reacts to it. Filled with many statistics, graphs, and charts, this collection makes connections between the baby boom, increased poverty, decrease in income, and decrease in pension. These observations are not only taken place in the United States but also in other countries in Europe. The very first page of the book is a quote from Sir Michael Parkinson who says, “There must be a shift in society’s attitude towards treating older people with dignity and respect”. This quote applies to every single contributor of this book. The chapters in themselves are named “What does it mean to be old?”, “A life worth living? Quality of life in older age”, and “Why is ageing so unequal” to name a few. In these chapters, the authors describe the prejudices against old age (104), how the media glorifies the young (126), why we fear age so much (133), and what we can do as new generations to combat the age discrimination (159). Chapter three in the book describes the change of health in older people (especially those in poverty). The healthcare that is needed to take care of older people with health problems pose a problem because of the increase of aged people as well as the decline in the economy.


 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Pogrebin, Letty Cottin. Getting over Getting Older: an Intimate Journey. Boston: Little, Brown, 1996. Print. **

//<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Good Source with table of contents. 326 pages. // <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Getting Over Getting Older by Letty Cottin Pogrebin, is somewhat of an autobiography about her journey through aging. I like this source because it is very personal and gives insight into the eyes of an older woman, instead of simply just looking at the research and facts. Although it is a book without any charts or graphs, there is a table of contents that splits the book up into different sections. These include acknowledgement of aging, embracing time, “Mortal flesh and mortal fears”, and appreciating the aspects of life that do matter. I will probably get quotes from Pogrebin when she talks about her appearance and how she feels about the small wrinkles on her face.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Topic/Thesis: <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Fear of aging=fear of death/ fear of self-destruction? BNW does not fear death//. Compare contrast today's society with BNW society in reference to age.//



<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Notes on Brave New World

//<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">__Chapter 7__ (Pages 110-111) // <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">“What’s the matter with him?” whispered Lenina. Her eyes were wide with horror and amazement. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">“He’s old, that’s all,” Bernard answered as carelessly as he could. HE too was startled; but he made an effort to seem unmoved. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">“Old?” she repeated. “But the Director’s old; lot of people are old; they’re not like that.” <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">“That’s because we don’t allow them to be like that. We preserve them from diseases. We keep their internal secretions artificially balanced at a youthful equilibrium. We don’t permit their magnesium-calcium ration to fall below what it was at thirty. We give them transfusion of young blood. We keep their metabolism permanently stimulated. So, of course, they don’t look like that. Partly,” he added, “because most of them die long before they reach this old creature’s age. Youth almost unimpaired till sixty, and then, crack! The end.”

//<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">(pages 118-119—Description of Linda) // <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Stout blonde. Two front teeth missing. Fat. Lines In her face (wrinkles/ flabbiness). Sagging cheeks, blood shot eyes. Bad stench. Black nails.

__//<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Chapter 10 //__ <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">//(Page 150)// There was a gasp, a murmur of astonishment and horror; a young girl screamed; standing on a chair to get a better view some one upset two test-tubes full of spermatozoa. Bloated, sagging, and among those firm youthful bodies, those undistorted faces, a strange and terrifying monster of middle agedness, Linda advanced into the room…

__//<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Chapter 11 //__ <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">//(Page 153//) Finally- and this was by far the strongest reason for people’s not wanting to see poor Linda- there was her appearance. Fat; having lost her youth; with bad teeth, and a blotched complexion, and that figure (Ford!)- you simple couldn’t look at her without feeling sick.

//<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Page of interest 154*160-161, 164 //

//__<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Chapter 14 (Great Chapter) __// <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Age: 44 <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Linda’s death à conditioning of young children to see death as a happy event

__//<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Chapter 16 //__ <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">//219//- The Controller shrugged his shoulders. “Because it’s old; that’s the chief reason. We haven’t any use for old things here.” …”Particularly when they’re beautiful. Beauty’s attractive, and we don’t want people to be attracted to old things. We want them to like the new ones.” <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">//220//- ..and you can’t make tragedies without social instability. The world’s stable now. People are happy; they get what they want, and they never want what they can’t get/ They’re well off; they’re safe; they’re never ill; they’re not afraid of death; they’re blissfully ignorant of passion and old age… <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Chapter 17 <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">//232//- “A man grows old; he feels in himself that radical sense of weakness, of listlessness, of discomfort, which accompanies the advance of age; and, feeling thus, imagines himself merely sick, lulling his fears with the notion that this distressing condition is due to some particular cause, from which, as from an illness, he hopes to recover. Vain imaginings! That sickness is old age; and a horrible disease it is. They say that it is the fear of death and of what comes after death that makes men turn to religion as they advance in years. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">//233//- You can only be independent of God while you’ve got youth…religious sentiment is superfluous. And why should we go hunting for a substitute for youthful desires, when youthful desires never fail? A substitute for distractions, when we go on enjoying all the old fooleries to the very last? <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">//240//- “I’m claiming the right to be unhappy.” <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">“Not to mention the right to grow old and ugly and impotent; the right to have syphilis and cancer; the right to have too little to eat; they right to be lousy; the right to live in constant apprehension of what may happen tomorrow; the right to catch typhoid; the right to be tortured by unspeakable pains of every kid.” There was a long silence.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;">Free Writing Exercise <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Old Age. Old People. Cant drive. Stereotype of old people. Discrimination? Prejudice? Why do we discriminate against old people? Because they cannot do anything or because we fear that we will be the same when we get older. But then wouldnt we want to be treated with respect and not with a judging eye? We get frustrated with older people because they are slow. But are we too fast? We think we are superhuman and can do whatever we want. More frustration. They are slow when thinking and talking to. Scaryyyy! Health changes with age. I will never be as athletic, flexible, smart as I was when I was younger. My mental capacity with be small. I will have trouble breathing and have joint problems. What if I have Alzheimers or cancer? These are signs of failure. Failure at life, or failure at making the most of life when I was the healthiest. Fear of death. Death is scary. Where do I go after I die? Does death even matter? Because the way you lived your life and the mark you made on the world is more important. Brave New World. They hate old age, they hate old people, they dont even let people get old. What do they do with them? Just kill them when they reach age 40--half point of life. They like to keep their members of the society young with science. Eradicating disease and hardships. There is no cancer or alzhiemers. Why do they hate old age so much? Because one gets uglier as they age? But do they get ugly or just different. If we hate old age because of death, the same cannot be true for the BNW. They dont realyl believe in death, or atleast death is not scary to them. They make death seem happy. Hatred of old because it is not new? Change is good. brave NEW world. New ideas new thoughts new people, if you can even call them people. They seem like robots- programmed for a specific reason and for a specific purpose.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;">Compare/Contrast Table
 * __<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Today's Society __ || __<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Brave New World __ ||
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">-grow old || <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">-No such thing as old ||
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">- Health risks || <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">- Always healthy ||
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">- Stereotypes for the aged || <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">- Stereotypes for the aged (ugly) ||
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">- Fear of death || <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">- Conditioned to accept death as a happy time ||
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">- Take steps to make the aged feel like they belong || <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">- Totally eradicate and make fun of those who are old ||
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">- Old age can be attributed to poverty || <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">- Linda (old, poor, savage) ||
 * -<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Fear of being near elder people (because we ourselves are scared of its inevitability) || <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">- Fear of being near elder people (because it is ugly and not new) ||

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;">Brief Outline <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: left;">﻿I. Introduction (define old and new)II. Stereotypes for the elderly (why we think we discriminate against them)III. Ways we discriminate (statistics)IV. Appearance of the elderly (ugly, different, poverty, Linda)V. Health of the elderlyVI. Fear of death (its inevitability in this life and its greatness in BNW)VII. Conclusion

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;">Observation November 28, 2010 <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">As I sit here trying to write this paper at the computer on the first floor of the library, a lady (not a student) sits at the computer next to me. She is definitely an elderly woman, maybe late 50's or early 60's. I find this ironic because I am writing about the aged and elderly. As I observe her, she fits the stereotypes that are given to older people. I watch her and connect with what my paper is about; I am afraid of aging. I am not saying that I do not want to be this woman next to me because that is unfair since I know nothing about her life or even her name. All I can do is watch her mannerisms. She gently logs onto the computer, and looks slightly confused as to what she is looking for. She is totally not incompetent in using this piece of technology for she knows exactly what she wants to print and research, it just seems to take her a little longer. She coughs for the first few minutes she is near me. It sounds like a very strong and hearty cough, similiar to those who have bronchitis. Uncontrollably, her head shakes back and forth just slightly. Her glasses are prescription glasses making her eyes seem bigger than they actually are, meaning that she has a strong precription. When she walks back and forth from the printer across the room she is a little slow and has a small limp. Although these characteristics seem negative, I find her to be a healthy woman for her age. Considering she is at a college library at 10:51pm on a Sunday night tells me that she is not one of those old people who goes to bed at 8pm because they are tired. She wears her wedding ring; she is loved. Looking at her, I cant help but wonder, is this how I will be when I get older. Will I have a chronic cough, be unable to walk the same, be slower and everything I did fast? But will I even be lucky enough to continue wearing my wedding ring, to be moving around at midnight, to even have something to be researching at this age? I consider this woman lucky, but do others feel the same way?

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